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The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934 Film)
''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is a 1934 British adventure film directed by Harold Young and starring Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, and Raymond Massey. Based on the 1905 play by Baroness Orczy and Montagu Barstow and the classic 1905 adventure novel by Orczy, the film is about an eighteenth-century English aristocrat (Howard) who leads a double life, passing himself off as an effete aristocrat while engaged in a secret effort to rescue French nobles from Robespierre's Reign of Terror. The film was produced by Alexander Korda. Howard's portrayal of the title character is often considered the definitive portrayal of the role. In 1941, he played a similar role in "'Pimpernel' Smith" but this time set in pre-WWII Germany. Plot In 1792, shortly before the Reign of Terror, vengeful French mobs are outraged when aristocrats are saved from death by a secret society of 20 English noblemen known as the "Band of the Scarlet Pimpernel." The Scarlet Pimpernel, their mysterious leader, is Sir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Young (director)
Harold Young (November 13, 1897 – March 3, 1972) was an American film director, editor, and occasional actor. Career Young was born in 1897 in Portland, Oregon, where he was raised and attended high school. After graduating from Columbia University, Young began his career as a film editor from 1923-1934, working first on a series of George O'Hara short subjects under the director Malcolm St. Clair. Young's best-known early directorial assignment is probably '' The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (1934), starring Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon, one example of his occasional work in Britain. He died on March 3, 1972, in Beverly Hills, California. Filmography As editor: * '' Sally, Irene and Mary'' (1925) * ''The Strong Man'' (1926) * ''Sin Cargo'' (1926) * '' The Private Life of Helen of Troy'' (1927) * ''Yellow Lily'' (1928) * '' The Painted Angel'' (1929) * ''Her Private Life'' (1929) * '' Bright Lights'' (1930) * '' Top Speed'' (1930) * '' The Lash'' (1930) * ''Counsel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
"Pimpernel" Smith
''"Pimpernel" Smith'' (released in the USA as ''Mister V'') is a 1941 British anti-Nazi thriller, produced and directed by its star Leslie Howard, which updates his role in ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (1934) from Revolutionary France to pre-Second World War Europe. The ''British Film Yearbook for 1945'' described his work as "one of the most valuable facets of British propaganda". The film helped to inspire the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg to lead a real-life rescue operation in Budapest that saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from Nazi concentration camps during the last months of the Second World War. Plot In the spring of 1939, months before the outbreak of the war, eccentric Cambridge archaeologist Horatio Smith takes a group of British and American archaeology students to Nazi Germany to help in his excavations. His research is supported by the Nazis, since he professes to be looking for evidence of the Aryan origins of German civilisation. However, he has a sec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Bruce
William Nigel Ernle Bruce (4 February 1895 – 8 October 1953) was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in a series of films and in the radio series ''The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' (starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes). Bruce is also remembered for his roles in the Alfred Hitchcock films ''Rebecca'' and ''Suspicion'', as well as the Charlie Chaplin film ''Limelight''. Early life Bruce was the second son of Sir William Waller Bruce, 10th Baronet and his wife Angelica Lady Bruce, daughter of General George Selby, Royal Artillery. He was born in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, whilst his parents were touring the world. His older brother was the author and adventurer Sir Michael Bruce. He received his formal education at The Grange School in Stevenage, and from 1908 to 1912 at Abingdon School in Abingdon-on-Thames. At Abingdon he was a keen sportsman, playing for the first XI cricket team (for w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director and producer.Obituary ''Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and ''Vanity Fair'' and was one of the biggest box-office draws and movie idols of the 1930s. Active in both Britain and Hollywood, Howard played Ashley Wilkes in '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939). He had roles in many other films, often playing the quintessential Englishman, including ''Berkeley Square'' (1933), '' Of Human Bondage'' (1934), '' The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (1934), ''The Petrified Forest'' (1936), '' Pygmalion'' (1938), ''Intermezzo'' (1939), ''"Pimpernel" Smith'' (1941), and '' The First of the Few'' (1942). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for ''Berkeley Square'' and ''Pygmalion''. Howard's World War II activities included acting and filmmaking. He helped to make anti-German propaganda and shore up support for the Allies—two years afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Execution By Firing Squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ, such as the brain or heart, most often will kill relatively quickly. A firing squad is normally composed of several soldiers, all of whom are usually instructed to fire simultaneously, thus preventing both disruption of the process by one member and identification of who fired the lethal shot. To avoid disfigurement due to multiple shots to the head, the shooters are typically instructed to aim at the heart, sometimes aided by a paper or cloth target. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or hooded as well as restrained. Media portrayals have frequently shown the condemned being offered a final cigarette as well. Executions can be carried out with the condemned either standing or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boulogne-sur-Mer
Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the Côte d'Opale, a touristic stretch of French coast on the English Channel between Calais and Normandy, and the most visited location in the region after the Lille conurbation. Boulogne is its department's second-largest city after Calais, and the 183rd-largest in France.Téléchargement du fichier d'ensemble des populations légales en 2017 Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, INSEE It is also the country's largest fishing port, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anagallis
''Anagallis'' is a genus of about 20–25 species of flowering plants in the family Primulaceae, commonly called pimpernel. The scarlet pimpernel referred to in literature is part of this genus. The botanical name is from the Greek ( 'again') and ( 'to delight in'), and it refers to the opening and closing of the flowers in response to environmental conditions. These are annual or perennial plants, growing in tufts on weedy and uncultivated areas. The stems are prostrate or decumbent. The leaves are opposite, rarely whorled, and sometimes with a few alternate leaves at the end of the stem. They are usually ovate in shape with a cordate base. Some of the species produce flowers of various colors. The flowers are radially symmetrical and have 5 sepals. The corolla consists of a short tube and 5 lobes. The tube may be so short that the lobes appear to be separate petals. They are usually solitary in the leaf axils, but sometimes are on short spikes at the end of the stem. Pimpe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Country House
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are, the full-time residence for the landed gentry who ruled rural Britain until the Reform Act 1832. Frequently, the formal business of the counties was transacted in these country houses, having functional antecedents in manor houses. With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for many rural communities. In turn, until the agricultural depressions of the 1870s, the estates, of which country houses were the hub, provided their owners with incomes. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the swansong of the traditional English country house lifest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ball (dance Party)
A ball is a formal dance party often characterised by a banquet followed by a social dance that includes ballroom dancing. Ball dancing emerged from formal dances during the Middle Ages and carried on through different iterations throughout succeeding centuries, such as the 17th century Baroque dance and the 18th century cotillion. Several variations exists such as the masquerade and debutante ball as well as the more modern prom. Etymology The word ''ball'' derives from the Latin word , meaning 'to dance', and ''bal'' was used to describe a formal dancing party in French in the 12th century. The '' ballo'' was an Italian Renaissance word for a type of elaborate court dance, and developed into one for the event at which it was performed. The word also covered performed pieces like ''Il ballo delle ingrate'' by Claudio Monteverdi (1608). French developed the verb , and the noun ''bal'' for the event—from where it swapped into languages like English or German—and , the S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment. The word is also used informally for people who are known, without national appointment, to represent certain professions, activities, and fields of endeavor, such as sales. An ambassador is the ranking government representative stationed in a foreign capital or country. The host country typically allows the ambassador control of specific territory called an embassy, whose territory, staff, and vehicles are generally afforded diplomatic immunity in the host country. Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, an ambassador has the highest diplomatic rank. Countries may choose to maintain diplomatic relations at a lower level by appointing a chargé ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Citizen Chauvelin
Citizen Armand Chauvelin (''Citoyen Chauvelin'' in French) is the villain in Baroness Emmuska Orczy's classic novel ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' and the various plays and films derived from the work. Overview He is cast as Sir Percy Blakeney's arch-enemy throughout the novel's many sequels and appears in almost all of them. The former ambassador to the Court of St. James's (''The Scarlet Pimpernel'', '' The Elusive Pimpernel''), Chauvelin is both a representative in the National Assembly and the chief agent of the Committee of Public Safety. Chauvelin is also an old friend of the Pimpernel's wife Lady Blakeney, having been a frequenter of her salon in Paris before her marriage (and is depicted in some film treatments as being Marguerite's suitor or lover prior to her marriage to Sir Percy). Chauvelin is a ruthless, amoral patriot who firmly believes that the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel is a threat and a mockery to the French Republic, and uses his position incessantly to att ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince Of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers of independent Wales. The first native Welsh prince was Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd, in 1137, although his son Owain Gwynedd (Owain ap Gruffudd) is often cited as having established the title. Llywelyn the Great is typically regarded as the strongest leader, holding power over the vast majority of Wales for 45 years. One of the last independent princes was Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (Llywelyn the Last), who was killed at the Battle of Orewin Bridge in 1282. His brother, Dafydd ap Gruffydd, was executed the following year. After these two deaths, Edward I of England invested his son Edward of Caernarfon as the first English prince of Wales in 1301. The title was later claimed by the heir of Gwynedd, Owain Glyndŵr (Owain ap Gruffydd) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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